Adobe® Photoshop® Smart Objects and Smart Filters

Adobe® Photoshop® Smart Objects and Smart Filters

Adobe® Photoshop® Smart Objects and Smart Filters

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Adobe® Photoshop® Smart Objects and Smart Filters

Lesson Info

Adobe® Photoshop® Smart Objects and Smart Filters

Mr dave cross if you've been watching creative life if you've been using photo shop at all for the past twenty five years, you've probably heard of this man who's been educating and helping people to get the most out of the program for that along he's an adobe certified instructor he's an author he's just an all around a wonderful man we are very excited tohave here back on creative life again today to talk to us so again, dave, I want to take it away. All right? Thank you very much. Well, good morning, everyone and good morning at home those of you that it's still morning so that photoshopped quiz game was fun to watch that being played because actually wrote all those questions like three years ago so someone was like, I don't even remember that did I write that so and some of the questions have actually changed because the version of photo shop is now newer. So now the question is actually changed because someone emailed me said that question was wrong I'm like well, no it's not bec...

ause they fixed it and it was then it was right at the time when it was written and who just before I get started I always like to show this just so people who are interested can find out what's on my social media, so if you wantto keep track of what I'm up to and some extra little tips and announcements of things along the way. There's something for youto look at so yesterday for those people that were here and some people watching at home, russell brown did this hilarious history of photo shop thing, which you didn't see it as well worth checking it out. I've seen them do it live before and it's pretty funny, and one of things that he was doing throughout the history is he got to photo shop three and he said that's, when things change because that's when layers were introduced and I've been using photo shop since day one, so I remember very clearly the first day I got this new version had layers, and it was like, oh, you know, the angels singing I was like, that's amazing, that changes everything well and at this point, honestly, I can't tell you when it was, but it was somewhere around photo shop, I would say cs, I've probably photoshopped cs two or three the's new things called smart objects came in and for me that's about the equivalent of layers in terms of how much it's changed the way work in photos, and this class is all about smart objects and and its best friend, smart filters and there's a huge advantage to using them, however. At first, it takes a bit of a mind set change because you have to take a slightly different approach on how you do things, but for me, honestly, smart, filled and smart objects completely changed the way use photo shop, and I'm not just saying that because this classes on that I mean, it really is the case that, uh, habits have changed aiken doom or than I could before I could work more quickly, and aiken reuse and repurpose old work because of the way that I'm saving them. So smart objects kind of change the rules a little bit, and the best way that I can think to describe smart objects is if you think of a container, so normally, if you have a layer in photo shop, it's, just this layer sitting there, and you can do anything you want to it, but for the most part, with a few exceptions, anything you do is kind of final. In other words, if you have a logo, that's just made out of pixels, and I'll show you this in a moment, and you make it smaller that's its new size. So if you come back later and say, oh, I want to make it bigger again, it loses quality because now you're scaling it up, so the concept of a smart object in this is just my description if you look in photoshopped nowhere will you see the term container that's just the thing that made sense to me, it's like you've taken your photo layer and you stuck it inside this container it's a special magical container that has magical powers that means I can do things that normal layers can't so for example, here's my photo it's sitting inside this special container if I decide that I want to scale down the container, the photo scales down with it, but where the magical part happens is even though on our screen we're now seeing this scale down photograph technically inside of it photoshopped still remembers, but the photo was still really that big, so unlike normal scaling, where once you hit enter that's its new size with a smart object scale ability back and forth is one of its big manages now it doesn't change the fact you can't scale it back higher than it originally was, but at least allows you that flexibility. And as we'll see when we talk about smart filters, the other thing you can do is if you apply a filter to you your container whatever's inside it will also be affected but it's the same thing inside of it the original photo still exists or even know the container is has that filter applied? The contents really doesn't so what it means is it's little like a protective container that lets you do all kinds of things too and also all kinds of examples of it, but it really the biggest thing I think to start off with is it you have to do a kind of mindset as to how to use these things because it is a little different and there are a couple of minor some people would call them disadvantages, I would just say realities, this is one of things that you have to live with the smart objects, but they're to me there's so minor, I'm perfectly ok with that compared to the alternative of how I used to do things ok, so let's start with a simple example here, so I'm going to make a standard layer and take one of my custom shaped tools, and we'll just pick something I have a few available, so we'll just pick something that has a shape to it, and at first I'm going to make just pixels on a layer so that's just standards. If I use any tool said these air now pixels and at that one hundred percent size, it looks fine, but here's always been the problem with pixel based image editing if I do free transform and I scale it down really small as soon as I hit enter that's its new size and I won't in this case, but if I also closed and saved it, that would be its permanent size because it be too late to undo right now of course I could undo it but let's assume I moved on to the point where I can't undo this theoretically I could just say, well, I'll just transformed back up again but would you have to remember is as soon as I scaled it down and hit enter that's now one hundred percent in some other software when you scale something down to twenty three percent it always says twenty three to remind you this is twenty three percent of the original you can type in one hundred here if I typed in one hundred nothing what happened? Because that is one hundred so watch what happens if I tried to scale it back up again to the same size it looks horrible because any time you scale something up unless it's type which is scaleable but any other kind of graphic element it looks horrible and you know it's just very soft focus and this is one of the problems we have because you have to be very careful in what I used to do is I'd make all these duplicate copies of every layer so I have all these built in backup plans which is ok then end up with all these layers and tryingto figure them out so let's step backwards for a second to the original layer I half so I need to put this into my protective container called a smart object and in typical photoshopped fashion there's multiple ways to do that the way I usually use is because it's quick is I right or control click right on the layer and she was convert to smart object now here's my suggest any time you see convert to smart object pretended says put inside special magical protective container which would be really weird if it actually said that I would fall over if it really did that but that's what we need to think about it now visually the only thing that's different is look at the layer thumbnail has that little tiny symbol on the corner that's the indication this is now this thing called a smart object okay so before I go too far we'll eventually let me do this first so let me first show you the comparison between what happened before when I tried to transform it I'm going to use free transform there's a subtle difference now there's a big x through it which is a weird interface option that really should be a big happy face to say oh now I can scale it because it's smart so once again we scale it down really really really small and it enter again pretend I closed and save this and open it tomorrow went oh that was a little small well, I can hit free, transform and because the smart object remembers how big it was, aiken scale it right back up again without any loss of quality, because scaling is no longer permanent and this is just I'm deliberately starting with the most basic of all examples, but this is the principal you can apply to a whole bunch of things with smart objects is you can make what appears to be a fairly permanent change, but it isn't because of the nature of this protective smart object, so let's, get out of the way the couple of disadvantages that people feel that they encounter with smart objects the first one is, depending on how you created your file size could get much larger because you're actually embedding this extra information inside my personal feeling is ok, I'd much rather have a big file size with all these editing capabilities than a nice, slim and trim file size that I couldn't edit, so my reaction without trying to sound facetious is when people say you had the file size getting big directions. You know what? Go buy another hard drive them because storage is cheap these days, why not just give yourself more room to edit by having a bigger file? The other one that takes a bit more that people have a bit of a hard time getting used to is the relationship of how we work with items is a little different in the past. If this is a normal layer and I thought I want to change this to blue, I would just fill it with blue. Well, the problem is, if you use sale, pick blue is my color, and I go to take the paintbrush, and I get this symbol, which I like to call the I'm sorry, dave, I can't let you do that simple, which only works if your name is david, you've ever seen how in two thousand one. Anyway, this little symbol is like, no, you can't. And if I try it's going to say, this smart object must be restaurants before proceeding, edit contents will no longer be available. Rast arise a smart object. And worst of all, the little glowing thing is actually prompting me to click. Ok, there should be a hell no button over here, because that's the whole point wide, the whole point of having a smart object is to be able to commute, to edit the contents. So the question is, well, how do why paint this then? And this is the first part of smart objects that's kind of the mind twist a little bit is, if you think container, the contents are inside that if I wanted, look inside it, I need to look inside that container and the way that I do that with smart objects. If I double click on it, it actually opens a separate window with the original information in it. So now and here I can take my paintbrush and do a beautiful work of art like that it's awesome, so pretty so now I'm changing the contents as soon as I close and save it. It updates over here, so the part that throws people will curve at first is all the editing you do in a separate window and was, well, see, you might have seventeen layers that suddenly look like one, but when you work on those seventeen layers that opens in this separate document, so that's the part that's a little bit of a twist that makes people kind of go, wait a minute, you know, how do I do that? And as we'll see, this also means things like cloning and healing and all those kind of things you have to take a slight, different approach because you can't work directly on it because it's inside that protective container so my suggestion is early on, the best thing you can do with smart objects is make the simplest example like this at a new layer. Paint something on their convert to a smart object and then double click on ago cave so the contents is here I edit it when I save it it updates here and you do that a couple of times and then that back and forth thing just becomes ok that's just the way it works but as you'll see it offers some huge benefits because it lets us do things we couldn't do before the problem was for certain things like ones we'll see l just later on working with type you couldn't apply a filter to type without rest arising it well, as I said yesterday, rast arises restaurant in one of my evil words of photo shop I don't want to do that because you never want to eliminate the ability to edit something so initially smart objects one of those little twists as you have just have to kind of accept the fact that its container and contents in two separate windows and just as a little added things. So if you ever confuse because you have multiple windows open here's my smart object and tell because it has that smart object logo on it don't be surprised if every so often like in this case notice how the thumbnail didn't update quite yet and sometimes that happens even though I painted blue on it it doesn't look like it there sometimes there's a bit of a lag in that happening but the way to tell us if you double click the contents file always is a dot psb file. Your main document is psd for photoshopped document. P s b is a file format that's preserved for other uses, but also happens to be the file format of the contents file. So if we ever looking at a couple windows going, I'm a little loss, which one is which the psb file is the contents that you can actually work on, and usually comptel, because you'll see layers and graphics and things that you can actually edit, whereas the smart object will look like one single layer. And as a piece of trivia that's in the quiz game, psb actually stands for photoshopped big, which is really weird, but that's what it stands for, because if you have a really huge file that can't be saved as a psd follow, technically can save it as a psb. But for some reason, they chosen psb to be the file format of the contents file. Okay, now you have two options here. When I first did this, I added blue paint, and then I said, close and save you could also just make a change and then save it, so if I wanted to let's, just pick some other color and the whole thing read I could also without closing it just hits save and then when I go back to my graphic it'll update so if you know you want to do ongoing editing you don't have to actually close it and save it I just have a habit sometimes because I know that's all I want to do but when you want to continue work on it's quite feasible to have the two windows open and just switch back and forth and if I had a bigger monitor here I would tile my windows so I'd actually see container contents side by side and I may do that little later just so you can see how live it really is so that's the basic principle of working with smart objects so let's take a bit of a step back now that we've kind of seen how that works and say how do we actually create smart objects and there's a few options so for example if I have some type in here or type x in here and I decide I want to make that a smart object anytime you have an existing layer or layers the easiest way to convert to a smart object is to use that command again found here as right click convert or you could go to the layer menu and she's smart objects conferred to smart objects in my class yesterday on habits of successful users I talked about customizing keyboard shortcuts personally, I would allocate a keyboard shortcut to convert to smart object because I use it so often I would make a keyboard shortcut for that I'm definitely not doing that today, so you're seeing what I'm actually doing but on when I'm working on it, I just go hit a shortcut and it's a smart object so that's for any time where you have existing layers that you want to turn into or put inside that protective container if you have something outside so for example, I have a multi layered type files I'm going to show you actually looks like this. So this is what the psd file actually looks like it's a siri's of editable type players on a graphic, so I just want you to see what it actually looks like if I'm in a document, I think, oh, I need to use that graphic element, but I want to in one step use it in this document and be smart or have it be smart that one of the simplest ways is to use the place command now here's where we get into the the one of the greatest joys as an instructor of photo shop is creative cloud because one things that happens in creative cloud is every so often they just bring out a new feature, so if you have creative cloud and you updated creative cloud after january fourteenth then you would see this place embedded in place link if you don't you just the place so I'm going to pretend for a moment that all we see is the word place because for many people that's all they would see most the time it just says place unless you're very current with your software when you do that it is ok what would you like to place and I just go and find the final keep in mind this is a multi layered psd file that I'm telling place it into photo shop when I do here's what happens it brings it in and says would you like to resize little bit and I can say maybe a little bit sure and assumes I hit enter look what happens it shows up as one layer but it's smart so that means all of that type content is still editable just not right there so it's the same situation if I took my type tool and tried to edit this it wouldn't it would make a new type player because technically I'm seeing that protective container but I can't actually touch the type so how do why edit it same is before a double click on it it opens a separate window and I say I don't think I really want the clock on there so I had save and then it updates so again that little twist that takes some time getting used to is two different windows. One is the file your your quote, unquote finished document and the other is when I need to edit the contents. Now, for some people that's a mysterious thing, they're like. I don't get it. Why would I do that? Well, part of it is to remove clutter. I used to have layers panels that were just ridiculous, the number of layers as much as I tried to organize them. I love the fact now that I can have one layer that just with that little symbol on it. I know it's, not really. One layer it's seven or ten and I the moment I've hidden one of them. But I know it's not gone it's just hidden in that contents document. So when you first start working with smart object, my suggestion is to really think container and contents. If you start thinking of it that way, then you start getting used to the fact that in time you want to work on the actual contents, it has to be in that separate document. Okay, now we'll come back to this document later on, and talk about some of the wonderful things we can do with type and smart objects and filters and things of that nature. The other way we can do create smart objects is using either camera raw or light room and this is one of my favorite ways to work with smart objects this is to me is absolutely brilliant so normally when you open raw file in camera and I'll start there and then talk about like room in a second this is what you see you see your image and you work on it and you make change lying and deliberately kind of overdo a little bit and the down the bottom you see there's a button says open image so this is not smart objects now this is standard operating procedure by default is you do something, open it a raw filing camera move your sliders around hit open image and at this point I would say the end meaning the relationship between kameron photoshopped has just ended. If I look at that now and say that's a little over exposed, my only option would be to close this and start over again so by default it's a one way street from camera to photo shop period which aa lot of the time is ok, but personally I love editing and camera because it's easier you know in photoshopped there's like five different ways to adjust in image and none of them are very straightforward in kamerad there's a slider called exposure on okay it's easier and there's some things in camera that don't exist in photo shop like clarity clarity is a beautiful little slider that currently does not exist inside photoshopped what kind of does in a little other way but maybe that's different but generally it's not so that's the way it works by default so what I want to do is I want to set up a system so I'm creating a two way street between kameron photo shop so I can take advantage of going back and forth and the way we do it it is I hate to say this to adobe but probably an example of the worst interface design in the history of software because the most important thing in camera is called workflow options and if you see a button or anything called workflow options there no see at the very bottom there's like what looks like almost like a hyperlink you'd see on a web page that's the work flow options button yeah sure is I know people who've used camera for like four years are like wait what they're like I thought that was just information well it is but it's also a button and it should be at least say click here brackets adobe rgb all that but it's not a lot people missed that this is the button where you pick a lot of really important things including the size of your file the color space but also in my case this very important little check box that says open in photo shop as smart objects now, when I first saw this, I thought they had made a not that I'm that great a grammar, but I read it like, wait open as smart objects, how can I open this one photo as a plural but it's almost like it says from now on, open all smart objects as smart are all camera as smart object, so this is actually a preference that if you turn it on, it stays on. It assumes from now on, all of your camera raw files will be smart objects, which, personally, I had to actually go and turn this off so I could show you how to turn it on because I leave it on all the time to me, there's actually no reason why I wouldn't want my camera files to be smart objects, and the reason is here I'm going to make a really poor decision here, and I'm gonna pretend I just was half asleep and I made a very poor adjustment now it's a subtle change, but the bottom, it says open object instead of open image, so when I do that, the subtle difference. If you look in your layers panel now, it doesn't say the name of the file alone and have that standard kind of photo shop background layer look, we once again see that little layer thumbnail so here's where it gets interesting because now I could start doing photo shop type stuff to it like rotating and adjusting and then suddenly go I think I went a little overboard on the exposure. Well, in that first scenario I would have had to start again because there was no relationship with camera raw anymore here remember how we edit the contents you double click on the thumbnail well, in this case, the contents instead of opening a separate window, it opens camera rock because that's where the contents exist in effect is in camera raw. So now I've created two way street I've done things in photo shop like we arranged it and adjusted it and transformed it, but now I look at him go, the settings aren't right I double kid goes back here, so now I could just put it back to the defaults and maybe make a smaller adjustment and click ok and instantly it updates so that ability to take advantage of all the camera raw editing options within photoshopped back and forth like that to me is a tremendous possibility got a question for valley city that's kind of related to that? If you place a psd file as a smart object inside another document and change it in the file you placed it in when you save it does it change the original file? Well and the answer to that is my favorite answer was that depends because up until this latest update of photo shop sisi that has the option to in bed or link used on ly be embedded, so therefore was completely separate. So if you edited in the place file, the original would not change. Now you have the option. If you have this latest update to create a link, so then it would change so that's a question that never used to exist. But now it does, because, depending on the version of photo shop cc you have, and by the way, the linked option two were smart object is brilliant, but as an instructor, it's a little hard when you're trying to describe to a room of people, we have no idea what version of photo shop and even what version for shops sisi they have, so generally it doesn't. If you have the linked option, then you have to be more cautious about that. Thank you. Now, for those people that start in light room, the principle is very similar, but with a little twist so here's how it works in camera raw, so in light room there's an option under the photo menu that says, edit in and write the furry first softness edited photo shop, but if you choose that that's, that same one way street if you instead choose open as a smart object and photo shop it's going to bring it into photo shop where you can edit it, but here's the twist in camera when you go it's goes camera photo shop back and forth. When you start in light room, you might think, well, if I double click, it'll go backto light room, but it doesn't and that's the little twisty part is when you have it in one edited the original two double click, it actually edits it in camera raw. Now the good news is camera raw on light room or the same in terms of their engine, for editing, so the sliders will law. Everything will carry over. If you've already adjusted settings, they will still see it. So this's where the fun starts so ok, starting light room, I open it, and photo shop smart object I double click it opens it in camera raw, where I can edit it when I close it. It goes back to camera raw because that's where I was working, but then when I close and save the document because I started in light room that's, when it returns to your light room catalog so it's similar but has a little detour. So camera let's just straight for his camera photo shot back and forth if you start in light room, you still have the same concept. It just takes a little detour if you decide to edit the settings and for light from users the first time they tried that it's there just have to get used to the fact that ok, well, let's just say I know how to use those sliders because they're the same light room and camera are the same editing part. So if you do start in light room to do open as a smart object that's the only kind of little twist to it is it takes that little detour. Okay, so there's, lots of interesting options for how we do things let's actually get this other one here and for second. So once again I start now because I have that preference turned on. It will continue to open. This is a smart off, so I don't have to do anything that's gonna happen automatically, so I make an adjustment to it and I hit open object. Now remember we said that you can't directly edit the contents in that first scenario with the graphic, I had to open that separate window to change its color. Well, the situation people run into here is they find the same things if they start trying to use like the spot healing brush or the healing brush for the clone stamped or the patch tool, you're always gonna get that little symbol going nuke you can't because in this case the contents don't exist here they exist in camera wrong? Well, the answer to how to do this is actually pretty straightforward and frankly, it's the way I would work in photo shop anyway, even if this wasn't a smart object because I'm very reluctant to clone or hell or anything that directly on the background where, anyway, because I'm worried about what if I make a mistake. So even before smart objects, this is how I would use these tools like the clone tool, I would make a new layer, and then when I go the clone stamp tool, I just make sure up here in the option, it says use all layers anytime in photo shop, you see the function called use all layers that's adobes way of saying put the results of that tool on the blank layer sample from the layer below, so still going to use that photo layer. But now when I go to clone or hell or patch or anything else, as long as I have use or sample all layers as my option here's, what will happen? And I'll do an example and I probably wouldn't normally try, but we'll just so you can see something let's do it this way ljust sample here and start trying to cover up her shoes for example doing a really bad hack job but this but let's take it over here maybe okay really bad example but I just want to it really quick so you can see what's actually happening here look at that is perfect but the key is it's on a separate layer which again ignored smart objects for a moment I would re touch that way anyway, anytime I see people cloning directly on a background layer my heart misses a few beats. I'm like joe, do you really want to do that? Has some people like? Well, I know I never want that whatever I'm cloning out ever again and my question is, do you really know? Like what if two days later clients is remember that thing and you're like now that thing I removed completely you can just put it back so before smart objects I'd work this way anyway. Now the one thing you have to keep track of it this is the one little thing is you have to kind of plan your workflow accordingly is that whenever you clone or hell or pattering like that to a blank layer it the tool works based on that moment in time in other words, that layer on top is not live so just to illustrate this, if I went back to cameras that maybe I do want a darker you will see here's where the problem lies is the photograph updates, but the layer on top doesn't. So from a workflow standpoint, I would make us sure as I possibly could, that all my exposure and color toning type options were set before I started doing cloning and healing and patching and set or otherwise you'll this will happen and it at worst that would just mean I'd have to delete the contents of that layer and do it over again and again, I'm deliberately is trying to show you these are the common little road blocks if you'll run into when they first tried to use smart objects that once you know this is the way it works, then you just plan accordingly. Now one of the interesting really interesting to me aspects of smart objects is if you think that container contents you cannot take advantage or really interesting option called replaced contents, so that means I could create, for example, some kind of a layout and then just decide later now I want to use a different photograph instead of starting over again because it's smart I could just say in effect, reach inside that container and take out the first contents and put a different one in so let's look an example of that here's an example I use is for all the time whenever I print things I typically want tohave my photo in the middle with a nice white border with my name across the bottom. Now what I did years ago was I created an action which was an automated command that would say take any photo and add a border and put my name and anyone here or use actions you know as much as there always supposed toe work beautifully occasionally orion action go why did that not work? Something must be wrong so for some situations I find this smart object method actually works better so let's do this I'm going toe place and go on get a photo that I want so because it's kamerad starts here I understand they keep it as is and I hit place and then that automatically is going to create a smart object, so scale it down to say there and position it accordingly. Now I want to do a couple of other things I wanted to have a border around the outside for printing, trying to do a stroke layer style and into showing you that this functionally works for the most part like a regular layers happens have this added bonus of being smart so I can still do layer styles and drop shadows all that kind of stuff, so we'll just add that now I'll talk in more detail shortly about the concept of smart filters actually let me do it I'll take a sideway step in then we'll come back to this for a second so this witness will make better sense I think about it this way so here I am in this document I have a type player and here's always been the problem with working with type or one of the challenges is if I say ok I like the way that looks now I want to apply a filter and this is normal before smart objects I would do say let's do ah cool like uh motion blur will you get that same kind of scary dialog boxes says the type player must be rast arised its text will no longer be editable this to me should be read and flashing and again it says rass rise the type okay and it's actually glowing going won't want click here no so the same idea there should be a no thank you button because I don't want to do that I don't know if I did click ok here's what happens not going apply the filter but it's no longer edible type I don't want to pay that price so instead what I do is I converted to a smart object now it's in that special protective container so when I do my filter like motion blur aiken blur it like crazy make it nice and readable but here's the difference look in the layers panel you'll see the smart filter is now part of the layer is actually saying, well, you've got this smart object container that means I have the original type somewhere and I have this thing called a motion blur so I can turn it on and off and when I'm going to say or but I should be saying and or you khun doubleclick to say maybe I went a little overboard on the setting so that alone think about it is a huge advantage before smart objects every time you went to apply a filter people would like well, I better duplicate that layer because I don't like the settings I won't be able to change my mind that's okay? But the problem with that is you still don't know what your settings were in other words, if you duplicated type player rast arise it and motion blur stands you kick click ok unless you name your layer motion blur minus thirty to thirty one pixels how would you ever know later on what settings you used in this case it's right here what makes this filter smart now is its editable for as long as you save this as a psd file this is an editable function and over here you see that little symbol to the right this is an ability to double click on that it brings in options like you see in the layers panel where you can lower the opacity or the blend mode of the filter so if I want to say, well, I kind of like the motion blur but it's a little hard to see my text if I lower the opacity now I'm fading out the filter to completely change the setting and as an added bonus, this function actually means that there are filters that I'd never considered using because they were so overly dramatic that now I might apply the filter knowing because it's smart I can actually pull it back a bit using capacity so that's a nice added bonus of smart filters is it means now you khun take filters that I used to look at and say like find edges find edges is probably at first glance, one of most odd filters there's no options and just does this kind of over the top effect well, I've had occasions where I apply that and then use this command to put the opacity back to like thirty or forty seven active that looks pretty cool now a filter that I had written off a few years ago is now actually quite usable okay, so there I've got now this cool effect going and saying the same ideas before I look at and think you have but I wish there was a bit more space between letters or different font same idea I double click on it to open a separate document there's my original type, so now I take it and make it whatever smaller and different type going make this considerably smaller announced it'll fit, and then same idea when I close and save it, it updates and re applies the filter, so this gives me the best of both worlds. Aiken I gets actually multiple worlds because I can edit the filter and I could edit the type, so I don't have to do that whole rast arising thing, and I know well a certain point I have to make that decision, and I know there are some people out there that are thinking quite correctly, couldn't I just duplicate the layer and do this to a copy of it? And the answer is yes, you could, but if you want to change anything, then you have to throw away that layer and start over again. And you don't know what setting to use because there's nowhere that tells you that was a motion blur of x or that was a something whatever filter I love the fact that I could come back to a document that I did a year ago look at the layers congo oh, right, I did add noise that I reduced the opacity and did and multiply mode so from a reverse engineering standpoint to me it's brilliant that I could go back months and months later and look at something and I mentioned this yesterday one of the most common complaints I hear from photo shop users is I was working on some project and I started trying things and a whole bunch of stuff and I loved it and then I came back six months later and went how on earth did I do that because at that moment in time you're just on a roll right? Just trying things doing stuff but then because you didn't do anything in these smart object smart filter ways you had no running track record the history panel some people rely on gives you history at that moment in time but if you come back six months later there's no history anymore so unless you took really good notes in a notebook somewhere which is what I used to do by myself my little photo notebook back in like photoshopped three right? Like on layer to I did this so I could go back later and and then I'd be looking they're going where was that I kind of member? So this is much better because what unless you do is say at a glance I could just look at and say this is what smart filter does ok? And as you saw in this example I headed to the type and the smart filter updated ok, so with that in mind, let's, go back to this printing layout we're working on. So now I have this is a camera smart object I've put a stroke around the outside, but because I'm going to print this myself on my own printer, I always like to put little sharpening on it so I would apply a filter and do let's just say smart, sharpened and I'll just use whatever settings were in there for now because you see now it's showing me so now I can look at this this could be six months when I look and say, ok, I have that's a smart object now the only you can tell from the icon where there's a camera smart object or not but to me, if I see d cs underscore blah, blah, blah, that's the naming system that my camera uses for raw file, so that's kind of the helps a little bit, and it also tells me I have a stroke and a smart film. So now I hit print and I saved this document because I say this or let me rephrase that as long as I say this as a psd, one of the hidden talents of smart objects and smart filters, and I will warn you, adobe doesn't use this name, but I do it's a template so don't look in anywhere with photo shop for the name template because it doesn't exist, but functionally, this is like a template in the sense that now I've got all these factors that I've saved now it's time to print a different photograph so one of the options member container and contents are going to reach into my container and say take out those contents put in a different one and I do that by right clicking or control clicking and jews replaced contents now this on ly works our house I say this this has a better chance of success if your photos are exactly or very close to the same size which is my disclaimer for saying I forgot to check ahead of time to see if these two photos are exactly the same size so let's see together shall we? I have a feeling that well, we'll try it anyway, so when I hit place it's going to say, well, this is a camera raw file, so would you like to adjust the settings? And I go sure and then clicked, ok? And it says, let me take this photo and replace it with that one but it's already got the stroke and the filters been reapplied tonight disco print so if I want to print like fifteen files, I just each time go replace contents, print and if necessary I might find ok this photos a little bigger or smaller so I might tweak it a little bit but generally speaking this uh is a great way and it's not an action that I have to run that this is actually faster than an action because in action would have to be do this step now do this step in and this one is just saying just replace the contents as soon as you replace the contents by nature the stroke is already there and the filter is reapplied if for some reason on a particular photograph I thought and that's a little too sharp this the smart filter is also editable so every single aspect of this can be edited and the on ly thing that makes this not work is if for some reason I lost my head and went flatten and save his j peg and then I would just like one away in a corner and die so because I would never do that so that's the only thing that could make this not work there have been occasions where I've tried this and because the photo that I chose had was much bigger than I thought it came in enormous and I had to scale it down but even that took twenty seconds to scale a photo down it was like I was starting all over again and that to me is kind of the principal of using these this template concept again, I use that word with caution, saying, don't look for a command called save as smart template because there ain't one that's just my term to say it's like a template because you can use it to replace the contents. Okay, we have any questions at this point about that kind of template replaced contents thing in question from the audience? Well, so, so much about the template, skinny, but you talked about the the history, have you suggested todo be to make it the permanent, like cricket? Honestly, I haven't, because I don't use history to me. The structure of my layers panel is my history, so when I look at this, it eliminates the need for an ongoing history list because I could just look at and say, oh, it's a smart object with a stroke, so I think that's not a bad idea, but I think for me, it's an easier alternatives to build a structure that in effect is your history, you know? Yeah, it's a good habit, but I didn't have people, and I joked about this before, but I've actually worked with a couple people where I look at their layer name and I was like the layer was actually called. Scaled thirty percent comma like they actually named the layer with a little bit of a reminder, you know, so they could look at it later on I go. Oh, yeah that's what that was or pass it on to a co worker and they would be able to tell from the structure and the layer name I know when you're doing changes in light room and you're doing different versions. You khun save a copy of a version. Is there a feature similar to that in here? There isn't. But again I would say that that's kind of a different approach of light room. And here, just by nature of everything being smart, it's almost like it's editable versions anyway. Now what you could do in the michael I one of my classes yesterday I talked about the things hold layer camps. I could have two different versions of a smart object, and then use layer comes to kind of switch between them, but I would just build up my document toe, have layers being in effect, my versions, and then decide which ones I wanted to see. Ok, you got ok when you're back in the moments and it just became the one word is the whole thing, moments in time is that because it kind of disappeared. I did what I did in that particular us what I did, that particular cases just to make life easier. I just took one type player and made it a smart object, so the other layers were still all there. I just for the purpose of demonstrations, just one layer converted that I'll show you in a minute how you can take that a step further with applying it through through a different way, so we'll get to that one second. Okay, so I want to show you another example of kind of a template idea. Um, so this is, well, here's the oldest gibbons I didn't want to build it from scratch because that one reality of smart objects is sometimes it takes a few minutes to build, but then once it's built, you're done rather and make you sit and watch me duplicate this, but all I did was this is a photo I did import and then made this so that was a smart object, and then I use the duplicate command and photos any time you duplicate smart object using the standard method of duke getting layer it's an exact clone. So what I have is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight copies of exactly the same smart object that you can see some of them I made smaller some of them when I rotated, so the theory of doing this is photo shop has a little built an automated function called picture package but it's not customizable and I was you can't put your logo or your name and address or anything else it's just gives you a bunch of photos on the same page, so I wanted an equivalent of a picture package that had my information and of course it would normally have logos and all that kind of stuff, so all this is and I just put them in a folder to save space on the layers problems you see it's the original smart aj and I just went duplicate, duplicate, duplicate and just moved in scale so that's all I'd done haven't done anything unusual so and I saved this and because I say there's a psd it is in effect this template concept now I didn't in this case I could have also done sharpening filters on each one if I knew was printing it but that you know this more just for the purpose of from the layoff sampling this is something that I the past I would have done each time from scratch so imagine I have a new photo now for a different client I would have started again because it was just that was just the way it worked but because I now know this first one is a smart object and all the rest are copies or you could look at it this is the smart ob gyn all the rest of copies doesn't matter because they're all just exact clones of the same thing. Now I can say I want to replace this photo with a different one, but remember I said before, if you're replacing contents, you have to make sure that the photos are if not identical than very close to the same size sometimes it's safer then just using replaced contents special in case like this because frankly, I tried it once and the photo was such a different size they were all overlapping each other and it would have taken forever to fix it. So in a case like this it's actually simpler to me to double clicked open the original contents, ignore the man behind the other layer and then say, well, I want to go get another photograph that I have and use that one instead now by using the place command, it automatically scaled it to fit. So even if it was too small or too big, I should say, I don't have to worry about that, so I hit enter now remember it's very simple once you've edited the contents you hit, save tow update the original well in this case the original is actually originals so if I hit save, that takes a moment, and I go back here, done and to do anything, because that just happens automatically. So if you start thinking about this situations where you have a similar layout or look that you've created and you want to now use a different photograph, one of my favorite photo shop terms, I'm explaining things people is compared to the alternative, and compared to the alternative in this case would be starting from scratch every single time. I prefer this because it was, like, replaced content, save done. Now, if I did notice something where I won this, for I suddenly noticed this, I can still edit the layout to some extent and make its bigger or smaller or something. This is still a photoshopped file there's the smart object concept doesn't change the fact that technically, they're still layers, so you can see they each have a stroke around them. I could add drop shadows, I could add an adjustment layer, whatever I want, so that doesn't change it's just the smartness means that opens up other capabilities that I didn't have before. Do you label it when you close the file some way that you remember that you made well, I would call it something that I would remember, like photo, layout or you know, picture packaged or some term that make sense to you to me the fact that it says dot psd on the end I know that there's something going on already and then if I was going to send this to someone the last step would be save as j peck so they would get the j peg version I would have this master copy that means the next person I just replaced contents with their photograph now where it gets really interesting and this is I'll show you this really quickly but I wanted to show you kind of taking it up a notch a little bit so I wanted to have an ability to if someone was mocking up business cards for a client sending them just a flat file saying here's your business card it's ok, but why not make it look like look here's what your business card would actually look like as a stack of business cards so I just took a photo of a bunt the backside of a bunch of business cards and I want to make this into a template so again the perp my purpose is not to show you all the steps I'm going to kind of do it in a scaled down versions you can get the concept of how it works so all I did I'll just show you the basic concept how I started is I made a new document and on that I made a selection that I did much more carefully to say this is the standard size of a business card and I filled it with a color and before we did anything else, I converted to a smart object, so sometimes you can create these smart object time places by using what I would call a placeholder that's not an actual I wouldn't want just a blue business card, but I'm going to use that blue shape as my place holder and then all idea was ira repeatedly duplicated for the number I need ended like free transform and scaled and rotated so that's that's all idea so in each case so there's one and there's one thing on this part I had do a bit of masking so eventually I had this kind of look okay, which looks really bad because, like, say, your client here's your new business card there like why like the solid blue without any information on it look that's awesome! So this is not the end. This is just the end. The template is now ready. So remember four copies of exactly the same smart arms of the beauty of this kind of concept when you're repeating the same image, I just had to edit any one of them and they all update, so over here I have a little graphic that I created this is a multi layered photoshopped file probably one two three four five maybe eight layers what's actually see instead of guessing okay more than that so you can see this is the layer document that I created ok for me any time I have multiple layers it's easiest to do it this way I double click to open that contents file and then I use the place command now I could open the file and copy and paste or dragon drop the only worry about that is if you happen to have any like hidden layers they might not come over so that's why I tend to use the place command because it's going to give me make sure every single part of this document is in there and then I just scale it fit enter save it and then instantly done now obviously my scaling was a little off I did that deliberately so I could show you how easy it is to edit right in france believing me on the that was a deliberate thing on my part let's just go with that story save there we go so now I could send that to my client to say here is what your business cards would look like imagine giving them that verse just a flat j peg that says here's your card revealing how last night but the beauty of it is they look and they say oh, um this is wrong or we decided that designed the web be used to be a little bigger. And is there any way you can change that? You're like no, no yes. So think about the way this word now this is the one okay, hold on your hats a little bit for this one, okay? Because I used the place command into this contents file. It came in as a smart object, so when I double clicked on the smart object it opened this file that contains a smart object. So now we've got tupperware containers inside containers, so to be able to edit this one, I have to double click again to dig down one level deeper into the smart objects and take this type player that they want to be bigger. Enter and then I saved this one which will update this one which I then save and they will update this one. I did a class once on smart object and I kind of got on a roll without realizing. And I had like five smart objects within smart objects which sometimes happens and some of the audience said you must love the movie. Inception is like yes, I completely understood it. Everyone else is like what is happening on like I get it dreams within dreams, smart objects and smart objects make perfect sense to me there's someone in the chat room that said s so what you're saying is you want us to think inside the box exactly all of them yeah, I mean, you can use whatever comparison someone's eye was described they said so it's kind like those russian dollars where you look inside and there's another one and that's not to say this happens all the time but it's not that uncommon to end up having at least a couple of levels deep of smart objects because doing it that way gives you the most control in this case the reason that happened are the reason I did that is because if I just opened that psd file and tried to copy all the layers over, I'd be worried that now it might not fit or I might have lost a layer by mistake by using the place command it automatically takes that entire psd file sticks it in that context while an scales it to fit so but all that man does now I had a smart object within a smart object you have caused a lot of sound effect, comments and the chat room just f y I so and I don't want to scare going up by going oh I once you start getting smart outing inside smart object it's just too complicated it really isn't and sometimes it just happens as soon as you start working on your like it becomes well what would be a solution to a problem so this one like I said that to be look let's take a step back and say creating those placeholder smart objects probably took me half an hour because I had to scale it then create a mass so each business card looked like it was on top but that was half a knauer that now I have a business card template that any time I want to design a business card which I never ever do but if I did I'm all set to go and I've seen people that sell templates that air like make put your design on a book cover and a business card and a letterhead and that's this concept of they've created a smart object template that you just replace it with your contents so that's a very interesting to do your own or find other ones okay all right so let's get some of these let's go back here for a second to this one with all the type players so here's an example of one where again a rule changer because in the past if I wanted to say well I like that design but I would like to apply a filter to all of those type players well because there's five separate type players or sorry for type players in the past what are my options rast arise them duplicate them all of which are kind of they worked but weren't great options so instead, and this is to me where that the fund one of the many fun parts of smart objects as I showed you before, smart fillers on one layer, I could do exactly the same thing simply by saying, I want these four type players to be converted to a smart object, so now it looks like when you look visually, this is the part you have to get past it looks like I've emerged them together, doesn't it? Because you look at the layers icon or layer icon, it looks like one single layer. Well, it kind of is but it's just showing you a preview of inside this container, this is what it looks like, but you have to remember I didn't flatten our merge or rast arise, so those four type players are still there so I could take this and, you know, do whatever I want and rotated and now still do some filter like I don't know let's, do something and see like texture on io usually quickly has stayed. Not that I would actually do this to a bunch of type, but I want to make sure you can actually see something happening here, so I click ok and you see once again, it says. Smart filter filter gallery is the only part I don't like is the filtered gallery is the name of a bunch of filters so it doesn't actually say texturizing which I wish it did but it's not a big deal because you could just double click on it to say ok that's what it was okay so now I've done that I've got this design going on and then at the final moment I'm thinking oh wait there was supposed to be another word or I it's the wrong thought or anything same idea double click to get to this one and say ok this layer here should be I don't know different typeface or maybe a different let's just do a simple ones a different color just so we have something that's lovely and as once I'm finished I just get rid of this save it and you'll see it up all that looks even better now with the texturizing awesome so multiple type players multiple of any type of layers to things were happening here first of all my layers panel is not looking quite as crazy with all these type players but also there are other things I can do for example I can't really hate that yellow type but let's do this and say maybe that texturizing was a little heavy like like ok but I said before you can still treat this as a regular layer so now I could add a drop shadow and as a drop shadow to all the layers at once if this was normal photo shop I'd go drop shadow copy and paste of the next layer copy and paste the next layer so I now have four separate drop shadows that looked the same provided to edit it I'd have to go to each one to edit the settings here it's one drop shadow affecting all the layer all the type because it's treating it as if this is one layer from that perspective here's another very cool thing about smart filters let's get rid of some of these things I've got going on here and all right so let's use this one photoshopped aside take a small rest there for a moment which is very nice okay all right, so remember this is a camera so I've got the open object always happens because it's already a smart object that means I don't have to do any conversion for smart filters, so if you have a regular layer that you've created before nor to make the filter smart, you must convert it to a smart object because this has started in camera and I have that smart everything turned on it happens automatically so soon to go to apply a filter it's already going to work so let's do this let's do ongoing deliberately make an overly dramatic thing I wouldn't normally do is you can see what's happening here normally I would not apply a heavy motion blur to someone because that would just be here's your portrait they're like wow that's awesome um so here's what's happening there is that motion blur and look right above it there's this big white thumbnail well if you're familiar at all with masks like a layer mask where you can hide things this is a mask for the filter so I could say maybe would make better sense if I didn't have the blur in the middle of her face so I'll just take my paint brush and paint with black and all of a sudden I can decide where I want the filter to appear so this opens up a world of possibilities you could do this in previous versions of photo shop but honestly it was such a pain because he had to say we'll make a selection first and then applied the filter just of that and then inverted and duplicate this and here I could come back later on and instantly know oh I did a motion blur and I'm asked it because it's right there I don't have do any guesswork to go how'd I do this and more importantly now all these things air editable aiken change the settings on the smart filter or hide it completely I can mask it or take away the mask I can double click and change the opacity or blend mode or d all of the above and to me, this is a very interesting possibility of giving me this option. And as an added bonus, these effects are copy a bowl, so you can actually say, I have three more photos that look very much like this one, rather to start again, I just want to take that same effect and dragon in that other document, and you can basically either copy and paste or dragon drop the smart filter into the other document and tweak it where necessary. So one of things that I see all the time with people is they're constantly starting over again. Go ok, how'd I do that? And they start with a new filter, which is ok, but why not just bring over when you've already done three weeks ago? Look at and go oh right, that's, how I did that and now just tweak the results a little bit so that to me is as much as anything one of the most powerful parts of smart options part filters is there reusability and the fact that's very it's, kind of a built in ability to look back in the past and go, oh that's, how I did that so compared to that history concept where history might not be all that helpful later on, this is like the built in history and as an added bonus you do all this work and you can make it look completely dramatically different through the combination of camera settings and smart filters and then blah, blah, blah and then the varying ago no, you just turn it all off say, I don't want it all so that's yet another bonus is that you're not really doing anything it's kind of the definition of non destructiveness because you can create something looks going dramatically different, but they're all those elements that are applied to what you're doing now some people I know when I mentioned the whole, um smart object within smart object always see a few eyes kind of glaze over a bed like war that's getting a little complicated so let's, just look at that for one more second here to show you a simple example of why I might do this. Okay, so let me just take my type tool and get some text on here, make it nice and big so you can see it was nice. I love when you press the wrong keyboard shortcut complete by mistake. Okay, beautiful. All right, so we'll cradle scenario here I'm creating this for this fabulous new new hotel you know, the dave and las vegas it's like the wind or something it's anyone and they say we have no taste whatsoever, so we want you to create something that looks like this text with a stroke around the outside like ok, because customers always right so you add a stroke I wanna put it inside and make it a lovely color like this it's beautiful and that size and then you click ok perfect awesome it's lovely and they say but you know we we love the concept of a stroke so can you put another stroke around the outside of that in a different color yet again and inside your aesthetic feelings air screaming going no don't do it but they really want you to well here's the problem if I tried to add and I can't add another stroke has already has one and I want to keep I want to do it in the editable way in the most editable way is the layer style called stroke so how do you add a second stroke to the same layer? All the answer is you can't but one of things that happens when you put converts on me to a smart object it's like you're starting again because you're putting that protective container so in this case if I convert this layer to a smart object what it's really doing it's considering the smart object with the stroke to a smart object, why is that important? Because now I can start again and say at a stroke so now I'm adding another stroke to the outside, look at that it's beautiful. This is like design one o one how not to design a color love, but you need to interpret it in ways that would actually look nice, but I want to show you so now I've got a stroke on stroke and if I really wanted to and they said, hey, let's, do another, you'd be like, I'm just leaving right now. I just can't do it, but if they insisted I would do it again, convert that to a smart object at another stroke. Now someone asked me the question once and said, is there some limit to how many smart, obviously going put inside of each other? And there probably is. I did hear a story once of a guy in texas that made nineteen in his brain exploded because he was just like it was too much for his brain to think about that many smart objects. I would say I probably on maybe five smart objects deep because not because I would just wanted to, but because that whatever was working on it made sense to do that, and even that was kind of like lee and I have to go inside that one and so that's uncommon, but this is not that uncommon, so here is the situation now they say, ok we love it because it is so beautiful after all, but we've decided to the the hotel should actually be called david because it sounds more formal than dave. Well, I can't edit this because that's not a tight member that's a smart object, so I have to dig inside that to find the original one and here is one of the other little twist that happens with smart objects hoops I can't see the rest of my type now because it's bigger than it was before, so if that happens, I have to use a command called image reveal all so I make sure I see the rest of it, then I can save it and come back here and it updates now I know that I saw about four people kind of go right at that moment in time, but they're just like I want this is a very different way of thinking, but what you start have to start thinking as compared to the alternative if someone had said this to me pre smart objects, I honestly don't exactly know how I would have solved the problem because there wasn't a simple way and part of it would have been included either rast arising on one of those evil ish terms that would have made it very permanent, so this is a very simple idea where one of the print principles of using a smart object is it's like you're getting an opportunity it's ok and that's make that kind of done and let's start again with something else so this could be you know, applying filters on top of it or anything you want in these things all build together so this one doesn't but I could have this smart object with double strokes and put a filter on it and all those things knowing that all those levels our can be edited ok uh how often do you end up doing multiple smart option inside each other? Not that often but it's a nice ability because again it solves a problem because the alternative would be and we'll tell you one of the alternates and some people said well why don't you load it as a selection and then use this command called stroke well the problem is that's based on a selection so if someone says change the font that later that wouldn't change because it's just paint this way even though it took a little bit of extra effort and kind of thinking in my head okay how can I do this now I know every single aspect of this could be edited so if someone comes by later and says change the font change the color change a stroke add this do that yes because it's on editable item and that's kind of the idea of the approach we want to take is find ways to solve problems by taking advantage of these smart objects okay, so as we're looking through things, the things we have to consider our how you create a smart object in this case, I'm doing it in part because of I'm starting with camera raw, okay, now one thing I do want to show you here and photo shops sisi keeps adding new features and one of the my favorite features that has been added more recently, so if you have photo shops sisi depending on when you last updated, you have to check and see if you have this but it's been a while now if you don't have photo shop, cc and you're still debating about creative cloud or not, and I'm not just saying this to be, you know, nice to adobe this next one feature and photo shop c c I would get the creative cloud just because of this because I'm such a huge fan of editing in camera raw that this ability is really interesting. I showed you before how I started with the photograph that was raw and therefore I was heading back and forth in camera, but I always thought it was really interesting because I've done this in some other ways that I would like to edit other things like graphics in camera or layers in camera, so just to show you here, I'm gonna add another layer just so I have something else on here to show you there's more than one layer here it does not really part of the element of our design but I'll just do something to make it even prettier than it already wass and so now I'm at this point where the here's my smart object and I'm thinking all of the editing abilities that photo shop has are kind of cool but I wish I could edit just this one layer in camera on lee say that if I know now that it's on option so this is already smart so if you look on the filter menu there's now a filter called camera raw filter which means you can take advantage of camera raw editing ability on a layer by layer basis which changes the game because before I had to pretty much start with a raw file or ope force ajay picked opening camera to take advantage of it now I could do with any layer this is probably the worst example in the world because it's just pretty solid color but even then I could start playing with and say what if I take the different colors and adjust them and do whatever us do blues and you know do something not that beautiful but it's taken c and depending what it is you khun add some effects and grain whatever you know there are things in here that just don't exist in a photo shop or as easily so now I'm using the camera raw filter to a layer inside photo shop now normally I would do that with, you know, like a photo that's a layer because it's a little more realistic than doing it to a graphic, but just to illustrate the fact you can any layer and photoshopped, you can apply kamerad to that layer in this case, it already was a smart object not that I would ever consider applying camera two you know, yellow box but just to show you, I want to point out one other thing just in case you come across this I have been constantly right clicking and choosing convert to smart object, but the other option especially we're talking filters you'll see there's, a command called convert to smart filters imagine says in parenthesis by making it a smart object so that's another way to convert something to a smart object you're already going to filter menu anyway that effectively does the same thing. The other thing you need to be aware of that throws people off a little bit in fact, that makes people panic a little bit. The first time it happens is when you start doing like applying smart filters and things and then you decide oh, now I need to free transform when you go to free transform something that has a smart filter applied ceo just disappeared, it's, just to make it easier. So while you're doing things like transforming, you won't be influenced that you had a really blurry filter. You'd be hard to see what you're doing so by default when you and this is this isn't an option, by the way just happens this way. When you're doing any kind of free transformation, the filter temporarily is hidden so you can do your transformation so hit enter, then it's done again so that's just one of those things that kind of happens by nature that often people like a what has happened. My filter that's that's. Why? Because they're trying to help you by making it easier to see what's happening. We wanted to see if there's a few more questions before we definitely have questions for you. The question is, we've got about ten minutes left. You want to get through the rest of country questions, questions and then okay. Sounds good. Let's. Start with one from kate d photo. Do you have to keep these smart psd files saved in the same place? What happens if later I moved the camera file that is being referred to, or I work off a backup when I double click will still be able to locate that file, okay? And this is the same question similar came up before that up until recently I would've answered that in one way because they're never used to be this option called linked so before that existed normally one of the advantages of smart object and still is if you choose to embedded is unified deleted the camera raw file by mistake it's inside the document so it almost has a built in a back up plan and that's one to me was always one of its benefits. It made my file size bigger, but it also meant if I ever moved or renamed or did something the original file it's still in there and that's because before this recent change by nature smart, obvious were always embedded now because I have this option that says place in better place linked this is some funny ones ever done desktop publishing kind of work where you import a graphic into say in design you have to preserve the location and the file name and everything else because it's a link this is what this means now for smart objects. So if you choose that the difference is your file sizes smaller but you have to preserve keep the original file in its original location has the advantage where let's say aye place linked the same logo into sixteen photographs and now if I change the original logo, they'll change in all sixteen that never used to happen because it was always embedded so the new questions coming up now because it is quite an im literally saying this was like mid january this change that this is a very recent change in the creative cloud version of photo shop is should I link or not? And as always the answers well, it depends, do you? Is there a likelihood of you having a logo where something's going to change across the board in all your photographs or you really concern about file size because when you embed the file size gets bigger when you link it doesn't get as large so that's one of the questions that comes up and it's a fairly new one I've now that it's available, they I've done both because there's some situations where I'm experimenting, so I do want the ability to make a global change across multiple photographs in other cases I don't care and I'd rather is embedded to make sure I don't lose any linkage. It does warn you, I mean, if it happens, if you'd linked, um say a logo and then you move to a different folder the next time you open that psd father would say missing link or would you like to try and re establish the link? Because I can't find it so it does change that rule little bit, so that was a long winded answer to say it depends on your version of photo shop up until a month ago there wasn't an issue because it's always embedded now with this latest version linked is a nice option but it does mean you have to be more conscious off you can't change the file name you can't move its position, et cetera cross pollination between light room and photo shop denny florida wants to know can the contents be edited if smart object if a smart object is open from light room, it can I mean the only difference is I mentioned before so if you start from light room and say open and photo shop is a smart object when you double click on it to edit the contents you edited in camera rock it doesn't go backto light it doesn't create a two way street between light room and and photoshopped it kind of does a little detour through cameras so effectively you're still editing the settings but you're not doing it directly like you our camera light from so just you just have to get used the fact of your double click you'll still see all your settings but will be in camera raw not in light room once you save it, the file goes back to your leg room library, our catalog saying a name a file dash edit dot psd so you know now you have your original file and your edited one with the smart object built into it so one of things that to me gets kind of interesting as if you have an idea and you want to experiment and that's one of the many reasons I like camera raw is because I'm thinking in order to see it is gonna work, I might have to go down a path a little bit to try a series of steps and then see if it works or not. Ok, so let's do this let's take our techs and just put it back? We don't really need it to be a huge so uh it doesn't really matter. It's bos one little I like when dhobi adds these little features that are known internally as j d I, which stands for just do it and those are not huge features but it's they have an ongoing list of little things that users say I wish you would add and it's usually some little thing, so they take a break out of their main development. Add these little features and someone apparently thankfully along the way said, I wish there was a simple way where I'm just mocking something up what people would do is with type and they take the type to let go and type these ridiculous words that were like really long because you just start typing like this and trying to fill it in and if you're like me most, your words are much longer than real words ever really are so it's, not the base best example in the world. So somebody suggested, and I glad they did this wonderful option right within voter shop, I could just get garbage text, so it just puts lauren ipsum text in there, which was traditionally always the text you have instead of going finding text somewhere, you can just do it this way. So I have this idea where I wantto create a graphic element, and I'm just going to mock it up at first with this kind of text, just so I have something before I invested huge amount time of using actual text so let's assume that I said my ideas, I want this text to look like it's kind of three d going around the globe now photoshopped does have three d features. Personally, I still find them confusing even though some people say who used three d software say, oh, photoshopped three d is really good, I just don't I think in three d like x y z kind of thing, so I just want to create the illusion of dimension so I've got my type are, but let me pause and say, I don't want to lose the ability to edit the type so I don't want to have to make any decision long away that goes into that thing of rast arising, so first thing I'll do is just take my elliptical marquis tool let's, make it a little bigger and add a layer mask. So now I have exactly what I want type in a globe. Yeah, not quite doesn't look very globe like it just looks like it's kind of masked by a circle I want to make it look like it has that dimension of going around the globe, so here's, where I saw a case and I got a type with a mask, but I wanted you to edit it, so I'm going to convert to a smart object because I want to make it a smart filter, so I go the filter menu, and I use a filter that, uh, I never thought I'd actually used called sphere eyes, and I'm gonna click ok? And now I've got kind of the start of what I had in mind. Now, here's an ad, a little bonus of smart filters is regular filters. You could apply the same filter more than once, but then you wouldn't have any kind of track record of what you've done here. If I go and say, I think I wanted even more sphere ized, aiken, spear eyes, this fear, eyes and now I've got to spear eyes filters on there so I can mind myself what it looked like at various levels so what I'm trying to do is give myself multiple levels of well let me see what this looks like and I won't because I don't want to blow anyone's mind but I could add to more secure eyes is if I really wanted to okay here's the one thing about smart filters that is a disadvantage but it's a reality I don't think it's going to change I have added to spear eyes filters and here's my layer mask so not that would make any sense in this case but if I started painting on the mask of course I would lose this fear eyes well one of my theories is to make to really sell this being on a on a globe I'd like the outer edges to be a little softer so I would apply a filter like god's in blur helps make sure you're in the right place dave sorry again causing blur so I blur everything but here's the challenge I want to on ly blur the outer edges well normally I would think well I'll just paint on the mask but as you saw a moment ago if I did that the problem is it would get rid of everything so the downside of smart filters unfortunately is there is on ly one mask no matter how many filters you have and that's unfortunate, but that's just the way it is. So I need to come up with another alternative. So back to this point, we'll have this for your eyes. Somehow I have to kind of start over again so I can apply the gaza blurred have its own mask. Well, how how do you start over again with a smart object? You make it another smart object, just like they did with the double stroke. I do exact the same thing here convert this to a smart object now my sparked object contains text that has theorize applied to it, and now on this one, I could do gazi and blur, blur everything and then on the mask start to say, but I really only want the outer edges to be kind of blurry, so that was kind of the effect that I was looking for. I might make that a little blurrier, as you can see more clearly I'm doing that didn't make any sense. I'll make it for glory, seeking more clearly see what I'm doing, okay, you know what I mean? So now I do this, I'm like that looks great, but I don't like this word right here just I wish it said something different if we could actually read latin and said should be something else well, now I have to think about what I've done. I've got a smart object inside a smart object, so I have to keep digging down to find the editable information, so I do that by double clicking I double click there's tight, but it's got a smart filter I still can't edit it, so I double click again. There we go, here's our type player, so now I'll just do some things you can clearly see I made a change to it. I have to commit that type, then I can close and save that which will update this one, which I then close and save a cow. Now at some people view that are like, wow, that's a lot of work it is, but it isn't because it's maura mindset than it is work it's just having to recognize this is kind of the way if I want all this editing ability and get to the end result that I want based on not rest arising my type and the reality that you can only have one mask for how many smart filters and let's take it a step further again not to blow anyone's mind. But now if I want to sharpen this middle part, I couldn't do that right now because the mask is saying don't affect the filter on the middle part of this graphic so how would I saw that? I'd make this into a smart object now I'm three levels deep again, which is unusual but sometimes that's the reality where when you're trying to get to a result you have to think, well, how could I do that? Sometimes it's dreams within dreams russian dolls, tupper wherever you want to think about it that's the kind of level you have to get to and again that's not every day but it can happen and the reason I show this is because I want to make sure people are equipped with howto why solve a problem now what I used to do and I call a bso before smart objects it's like instead of bc and al that's before smart objects as a habit, I would open a document it instantly duplicate the background layer because I was getting my backup plan. Now very often if not always I opened document and I convert to a smart object because the only down I mean duplicating a layer is ok, but then it still doesn't give you that track record of how did I do that by converting to a smart object everything I do from then on I know the original background layers protected like it used to be when I duplicated, but now I can also say and you did this filter and you did this and he transformed it is connected to camera and all these different things, so someone asked me recently, do you always do everything with spartan objects? And I said, well, not always, but I always consider it because most of the time there is a benefit if I open a photograph and it I need to go, like, remove a couple of blemishes and printed what I probably do, smart objects you can probably still with no, but I would at least think for a second, is there any benefit and there's always a voice in the back of my head that says, you might not think you need to edit this, but what if she comes back three months later and says, remember that photo of me? I'd rather have that backup plan, so sometimes I use smart, honest, a point where, quite frankly, I probably don't really need to, but I'd rather have that built an ability to edit where you see how I did, etcetera, then the alternative of having remember, how did I do that and do it all over again? It's kind of the same reason why don't ever flatten anything because just in case six months or now, I might wantto someone might come back and say, move that thing over, and if you don't have all those layers, I'm kind of in trouble and in the early days of photo shop where my entire hard drive was eighty megabytes not gigabytes megabytes I really worried about saving large layered files now I don't at all because in my briefcase rattling around that I threw in there is a thumb drive it's probably bigger than hard any hard drop I ever owned so storages cheap don't let that ever be the reason for throwing away the ability to edit things by merging or flattening or racing or deleting or rast arising you smart objects and layers and you'll have ongoing ability to see how you did it and repurpose and all those wonderful things. Now let me say one last thing before we wind up a lot of this I've spanned from very basic smart object of frankly fairly advanced but my suggestion is start off really basic make a new document, add a layer, put a little graphic on it and then convert to a smart off and just try to win a couple of quick things so you get used to the principal and as I always say the timeto learn smart offices not when you have a deadline of tomorrow or an hour from now that's not the best time to try and implement this into your workflow a lot of photographers practice they take their camera and go out and practice shooting get used to their camera people don't practice photoshopped that drives me crazy take five minutes and play and practice with smart, obvious. When you do have a project that's necessary, you'll know how to use it.

Class Description

One of the most important changes in the history of Adobe® Photoshop® was the introduction of smart objects and smart filters. See why in this class that will be packed with everyday uses of these powerful functions.

Software Used: Adobe Photoshop CC 14.2

Lessons

Hani Latif Zaloum

Dave Cross is an excellent communicator and I've been following him since the early days of NAPP. This tutorial is essential for those who wanted to expand their knowledge of Smart Objetc sand Smart Filters and his examples to explain his criteria are practical and straight to the point. Loved every minute of it!

Hani Latif Zaloum

Superb. I consider this an essential tutorial for teaching Smart Objects and Smart Filters. Excellent stuff. Thank you Creativelive.

user-d5c913

Dave is an excellent instructor and I have enjoyed several of his other classes. I was somewhat disappointed in this class. The subject of the class is Smart Objects. Almost every example used in the class involved a text file. For those of us that don't often use text files other examples would have made the class far more helpful.